During the assembly process of a disc drive, the placement of the read/write heads on the disc is a critical operation. During this operation, is important to prevent damage to both the heads and the disc, e.g., damage from head-disc contact. The placement of the read/write heads on the disc typically occurs at a separate station in a disc drive manufacture assembly line, called a head merge station. The head merge station includes a head merge tool. A variety of head merge tools are currently available, including static and dynamic head merge tools. Other types of head merge tools are also available, including space merge head merge tools.
Dynamic head merge tools locate heads directly on spinning discs mounted to a baseplate of the disc drive; whereas static head merge tools locate the heads on stationary discs. In space merge tools, a head is located proximate to the disc, prior to mounting the disc or actuator assembly to the disc drive baseplate. In different examples of head merge tools, heads may be moved to a parked position via a disc drive actuator arm voice coil motor, while a disc drive spindle motor rotates the discs. In other examples, head merge tools may be used to locate the heads directly to parked positions such that powering the disc drive spindle motor and/or actuator arm voice coil motor may not be necessary at the head merge station.